The planned ICE raids that were supposed to unfold a few
weeks ago never seemed to fully materialize, but perhaps they were a red
herring to begin with. Because after the dust had settled and everyone had gone
on to worry about other things, the federal authorities descended on
Mississippi this week to arrest 680 illegal immigrants working at seven
different food processing plants across the state. In what authorities are calling
the largest single-state raid in history, ICE arrested and detained aliens in
Bay Springs, Pelahatchie, Morton, Carthage, Canton, and Sebastapol.

“We are first and foremost a nation of laws, and the Rule of
Law is the bedrock, the very foundation, of our great country,” said U.S.
Attorney Mike Hurst at a press conference. “I heard someone say that a country
without borders is not a country at all and while I agree with that, I would
also add that without law there is no order. Without the enforcement of law,
there is no justice.”

In their own news conference, ICE officials said that the
raids were not over yet.

“These are not victimless crimes,” said one official. “Illegal
workers create vulnerabilities in the marketplace, as well as stealing the
identities of legal U.S. workers, citizens, and legal immigrants alike, who
must suffer the long-lasting consequences of their stolen identities.”

The mainstream liberal media reported on the heroism of the
ICE agents, praising the federal agency for defending America’s laws,
preserving jobs for the citizenry, and cleansing the state of illegal
immigrants.

Ha!

“Following a massive undocumented immigration enforcement
operation that resulted in more than 650 arrests, many children of those taken
into custody are now left homeless with nowhere to go,” reported local news
station WJTV. “These children — some as young as toddlers — were relying on
neighbors and even strangers to pick them up outside their homes after school
and drive them to a community center where people tried to keep them calm. But
many kids could not stop crying for mom and dad.”

While WJTV and the Washington Post focused on the horrors that
federal law enforcement officers were visiting upon children, BuzzFeed assured
us that there was absolutely no point to this operation:

John Sandweg, former acting director of ICE under the Obama administration, said Wednesday’s operation was massive in scope and would have a long-term impact on the immigrant community.

“This is a high-profile way to send a message and to create more fear in immigrant communities about ICE and about their ability to live and work in this country,” he said. “This burns an incredible amount of resources to apprehend people, few of whom pose any threat to the US. It’s for show more than for anything else.”

Finally, the Associated Press sought to connect the raids
with Trump and the mass shooting in El Paso over the weekend.

“The raids, planned months ago, happened just hours before
President Donald Trump visited El Paso, Texas, the majority-Latino border city
where a man linked to an online screed about a ‘Hispanic invasion’ was charged
in a shooting that left 22 people dead,” the AP solemnly reported.

We suppose it would be better to only arrest criminals who
are childless, only deport illegal immigrants when it doesn’t cost us anything
in terms of resources, and only enforce the law as permitted by a psychopath’s unhinged
manifesto. Hopefully, the Trump administration will check with these
bleeding-hearts before conducting any further raids.